Research Eating fruits, veggies & whole grains may increase chance of early onset lung cancer

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https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1123911

INTRO: A diet rich in fruit, vegetables and whole grains is generally recommended for better health and to lower the risk of cancer and other diseases.

However, new research from USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Keck Medicine of USC, presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research suggests that this type of diet may put non-smoking Americans under the age of 50 at greater risk of developing lung cancer.

“Our research shows that younger non-smokers who eat a higher quantity of healthy foods than the general population are more likely to develop lung cancer,” said Jorge Nieva, MD, a medical oncologist and lung cancer specialist with USC Norris and lead investigator of the study. “These counter-intuitive findings raise important questions about an unknown environmental risk factor for lung cancer related to otherwise beneficial food that needs to be addressed.”

Nieva and his fellow researchers speculate that this risk factor may be the pesticides used to keep crops pest-free. Commercially produced (non-organic) fruits, vegetables and whole grains are more likely to be associated with a higher residue of pesticides than dairy, meat and many processed foods, according to Nieva. He also notes that agricultural workers exposed to pesticides typically have higher rates of lung cancer, which adds credence to the theory.

The study also showed that young women who don’t smoke have a higher incidence of lung cancer than men, and that women tended to also have a diet higher in produce and whole grains than men... (MORE - no ads)

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Akin to the social sciences, this biomedical area of research has always been flip-flopping around with its unreliable or often non-replicated claims over the decades. The conflicts aren't just due to the JFK Jr era. In kind of inverted territory, the same community has (for years) accepted that usually protective beta-carotene may increase the risk of lung cancer in smokers.
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Absurd study suggests eating fruits and vegetables leads to cancer
https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/04/a...ng-cancer/

INTRO: Dubious nutrition research and downright terrible diet and health advice are nothing new, but the situation has devolved as of late. With the rise of anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, federal food guidelines have centered on slabs of meat, excessive amounts of protein, and sticks of butter. The animal-based food craze has people slathering beef tallow on their faces. And, if your cardiovascular system isn’t already hardening just reading this, health influencers are now peddling nicotine—an addictive drug considered to be a cardiovascular toxin.

It is in this bananas context that headlines arrived in the past few days suggesting that eating fruits, vegetables, and whole grains can be bad for you. Specifically, it can supposedly increase the risk of lung cancer—a claim that flies in the face of decades of evidence-based nutrition guidance, like a full-fat cream pie.

The full study behind the headlines hasn’t been published yet, but experts have seen enough to call it baloney. The study is being presented at the American Association for Cancer Research conference this week and hasn’t been peer reviewed. Based on the abstract available online, the study was small, had no appropriate control group, led to a finding not previously hypothesized, used groupings that were “arbitrary,” is likely picking up on a known correlation, and jumps to speculation based on no data from the study.

“This is only a conference abstract, but the flaws of the study and its conclusions are quite striking,” Baptiste Leurent, associate professor in Medical Statistics at University College London, said in a statement.